Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (June 19, 1926 - March 14, 1972) was a profound Italian publishing founder and militant of the Italian left extreme. He founded Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore in 1954. He was also a communist and founded GAP in 1970. GAP would become the second terrorist organization to be formed during the Years of Lead. Look up Gap in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Years of lead was a period in the history of Morocco marked by state violence against dissidents and democracy activists. ...

Early life

Giangiacomo was born into one of Italy's wealthiest families, descendents of Feltre. His father Carl, served in high positions with numerous companies including jobs in the lumber field. A young Giangiacomo first took an interest in the lives of workers and the poor during discussions with the staff who ran his family's estate. He came to understand that, under capitalism, and the fascist regime it had spawned, the vast majority of people could never attain his privileges and were compelled to sell their labour to the bosses and landowners for a pittance. During the latter stages of the World War II, Giangiacomo joined the partisans, led by the Communist Party (PCI), fighting the invading German army and the remnants of Mussolini's regime. It was a small step from this to formally joining the PCI. Over the next few years, Giangiacomo played a key role in financing the activities of the PCI. Feltre (pop. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ...

In the post-war period the PCI held a dominant position amongst the Italian working class. The country was in economic ruins and the ruling class was weak. Given the widespread radicalisation in society, it was entirely possible for the PCI to embark on a struggle to peacefully take power on a number of occasions. The leadership of the party, however, was firmly under the influence of the reactionary, ruling Stalinist bureaucracy in Moscow, which wanted to come to an accommodation with Western imperialism. This lead the PCI to propose a coalition government in Italy, which would see them sharing power with progressive capitalist parties and putting off the struggle for socialism to some distant date. But even this was too much for the Italian bosses, who were afraid that the PCI in office would unleash a revolution from below. Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ...

Publisher

Near the draw of 1954, Giangiacomo established a reputable publishing company, Feltrinelli Editore. The first published book from the Milan publishing house was the autobiography of the first Indian minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. In the late 1950s Feltrinelli accidentally came across the manuscript of the novel Doctor Zhivago by the Russian writer Boris Pasternak. Set in Russia, the novel follows a multitude of characters from 1903 to 1943, the period of revolution and Stalinist degeneration. At once, Feltrinelli saw a masterpiece. Joseph Stalin and the PCI leaders saw it entirely differently, they could not abide any criticism whatsoever, implied or explicit, of the Moscow regime. (Unfortunately, the literary merits of the novel and its use as an anti-communist propaganda weapon by reactionaries in the West are important issues not treated in any depth by Carlo Feltrinelli.) Jawaharlal Nehru (Hindi: , IPA: , from Farsi Javaaher-e Laal, meaning Red Jewel) (November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964) was a political leader of the Indian National Congress, was a pivotal figure during the Indian independence movement and served as the first Prime Minister of the Republic of India. ... For other uses, see Doctor Zhivago (disambiguation). ... Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (Russian: ) (February 10 [O.S. January 29] 1890 – May 30, 1960) was a Nobel Prize winner Russian poet, writer best known in the West for his epic novel Doctor Zhivago, a tragedy whose events span the last period of Czarist Russia and the early days of the... “Stalin” redirects here. ... Anti-communism is opposition to communist ideology, organization, or government, on either a theoretical or practical level. ... An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One U.S. propaganda poster, which warns against civilians sharing information on troop movements (National Archives) The much-imitated 1914 Lord Kitchener Wants You! poster Swedish Anti-Euro propaganda for the referendum of 2003. ...

Senoir Service records the fascinating correspondence between Feltrinelli and Pasternak, as they successfully resisted clumsy attempts by the Stalinist bureaucracy to stop publication. Doctor Zhivago immediately became a best seller internationally, to be followed by a hugely popular film version. Feltrinelli was soon effectively expelled from the PCI.

Feltrinelli Editore scored another coup in 1958 and became the first to publish The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Described as the greatest novel of the century, The Leopard centres on the Prince of Salina in the 1860s during Risorgimento, a movement for Italian unification (the capitalist democratic revolution). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (born Palermo, December 23, 1896, died Rome, July 23, 1957), was Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa. ... Italian unification, also known as Risorgimento (resurrection), was a historical process by which the Kingdom of Sardinia (ruled by the Savoy dynasty with Turin as its capital) gradually conquered the Italian peninsula, including the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Duchy of Modena, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy...

Whatever his own reading tastes, Feltrinelli was always keen to promote the avant-garde, including the works of the influential Group 63 literary circle. He also took the risk of illegally publishing and distributing novels banned under obscenity laws, such as Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... Henry Miller photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer and, to a lesser extent, painter. ... World map showing the Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, or Northern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. ...

Active Militant

Feltrinelli spent the next years travelling the world and making links with various radical Third World leaders and anti-imperialist and guerrilla movements. In 1964, Feltrinelli meets the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, supporter of the main South American and international movements of liberation, with which long friendship was hoped to be established. In 1967, Feltrinelli arrives in Bolivia and meets with Régis Debray. He published the writings of figures such as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and a series of pamphlets on the unfolding revolution in the colonial world and the Middle East. For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ... Anti-imperialism is a current within the political left advocating the collapse of imperialism. ... Guerrilla (also called a partisan) is a term borrowed from Spanish (from guerra meaning war) used to describe small combat groups. ... Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ... Jules Régis Debray is a French intellectual, journalist, government official and professor. ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14,[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or El Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, medic, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ... For the city named after him, see Ho Chi Minh City. ...

Feltrinelli's political ideas were confused and contradictory. Lacking an independent class analysis, he increasingly sought to advocate guerrilla struggle to further the aims of the Italian working class. But guerrilla campaigns could only play a role in fighting the ruling classes in underdeveloped countries, where the peasantry predominated. Even then, isolated from a struggle of the working class, guerrilla movements could not provide a route to genuine socialist states. By contrast, Italy was a modern capitalist country. Here the struggle for power lay in the weapons of collective action by the working class, including the general strike.

GAP

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a period of renewed student and labour struggles both in Italy and internationally, marking the end of the post-war economic boom and a new offensive by the bosses. Many in Italy feared an attempted coup by the rightwing in response. As the conservative labour and PCI leaders refused to develop the mass movements, and confusion and impatience grew amongst some middle class youth and workers, Feltrinelli mistakenly prioritised organising ?clandestine resistance? to the right-wing threat. Along with the sprouting of other underground terrorist groups, such as the Red Brigades, he established the Partisan Action Group (GAP). As the GAP carried out a series of small-scale bomb attacks against neo-fascist targets and employers, Fetrinelli was forced into hiding. The Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse in Italian, often abbreviated as BR) were a terrorist group located in Italy and active during the Years of Lead. Formed in 1970, the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades sought to create a revolutionary state through armed struggle and to separate Italy from the Western Alliance...

Death

On March 14, 1972, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli was found dead at the foot of an electricity pylon near Milan, apparently killed by his own explosives while on an operation with other GAP members. Like his father's death, the passing of Giangiacomo was immediately viewed suspiciously. Many believed Italian secret services, which had a number of informants in the underground groups, had a part in his death.

Epilogue

The sum contribution of the short-lived GAP to the class struggle, like the Red Brigades, was to disorientate some sections of the working class and to give the state excuses to use repressive measures. Yet 8,000 youth and workers attended Feltrinelli's funeral. Undoubtedly, they were paying homage to a son of the ruling class who had broken ranks and pursued an intransigent goal of revolution, as well as having created a valuable publishing house whose affordable publications both informed and enlightened.